- DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Brad R. Morrison and Christopher J. P. Hanna, “WADE, FREDERICK COATE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wade_frederick_coate_15E.html
- DCB profile notes:
- Newspaper editor, lawyer, office holder, and agent general for British Columbia; b. 26 Feb. 1860 in Bowmanville, Upper Canada, second son of William Wade, a bank clerk, and Harriet Coate; m. 1 Sept. 1886, in Toronto, Edith Mabel Read (d. 1932), daughter of David Breakenridge Read*, and they had a son and a daughter; d. 9 Nov. 1924 in London, England.
- A man of keen intellect and brash outspokenness, Frederick Wade received his early education in the public schools of Ottawa and Owen Sound, Ont. In 1879 he entered the ba program at the University of Toronto and he graduated in 1882. While there, he became an editor of the Varsity, the student journal. A strong Liberal, he also obtained an editorial position with the party’s organ, the Globe. In 1883 he began legal studies with David Breakenridge Read. Later that year he moved to Winnipeg and continued his studies, probably with his uncle Charles Rann Wilkes, a lawyer in the city. In February 1884 Wade became a founding member of the Winnipeg Legal Club, which promoted the study of law, public speaking, and essay writing. In 1886 he was made the first president of the Young Liberal Association of Winnipeg, an office to which he was re-elected the following year
- On 26 Aug. 1897, in anticipation of the establishment of the Yukon Territory, Wade was nominated registrar of lands by the federal government. He arrived in Dawson in March 1898 and soon became disappointed with the administration of the territory. In a letter to Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior, he criticized the actions of various government officials. His own conduct as registrar was controversial. In the House of Commons opposition member Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper charged that Wade had enriched himself by imposing extra fees for the registration of lands and gold claims. On 7 July 1898 he was dismissed as registrar and appointed legal adviser to the Yukon Council. The following February he was made crown prosecutor.
- In the provincial election of 1909 Wade had been an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Vancouver City. He dissolved his law partnership in 1912 and became one of the founders of the Vancouver Sun, which soon claimed to be “the official organ of the Liberal Party.” As its editor and president of its publishing company, he led one of the most effective opposition newspapers in the province during the Conservative regime of Sir Richard McBride and was noted for his unswerving support of the Liberal party.
- In August 1918 Wade was appointed to succeed John Herbert Turner as agent general of British Columbia in London, England. On his arrival, one of his first actions was to provide beds in British Columbia House for Canadian soldiers on leave. An effective advocate for British Columbia and Canada, he held the position until he died in London from “muscular rheumatism” in 1924.
- Frederick Coate Wade believed that one of his most important accomplishments had been the establishment in 1906 of a fund for the erection of a monument to Major-General James Wolfe in Greenwich Park (London). The statue would be unveiled in 1930. He had been a competent but controversial journalist, lawyer, and civil servant, whose skills had been best displayed in the case before the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal and perhaps worst employed during the Manitoba school question.
- Third Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6903
- Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35299667/frederick-coate-wade
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